Apple Outlaws FortniteFrom App Store While Legal Battle Underway

Apple has banned Fortnite…get the details

Friday, 24th September 2021

Apple has banned Fortnite from its App Store until appeals are exhausted as the smartphone giant is embroiled in an ugly legal battle with the game’s maker, Epic.

CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney said on Wednesday that it could be years before the ban could be lifted. He, however, stated his resolve to fight Apple for as long as it takes and said on social media, “This is another extraordinary anti-competitive move by Apple, demonstrating their power to reshape markets and choose winners and losers.”

The two companies have been locking horns for over a year now. It was around August last year when the game maker got into a controversial situation as they tried to get around Apple’s 30 percent fee on certain in-app buys on the App store by coming up with its very own independent in-app payment system.

The creator of Fortnite, one of Epic Games’ very popular offerings, has laid accusations on Apple and said the latter is running its App Store as a monopoly and wielding excessive power and say over what apps are allowed and how they can run.

According to a ruling by a US judge in September, an integral portion of Apple’s App Store rules hinders developers from telling users about other locations they can visit to make direct payments to the developers instead of going through Apple’s core payment mechanisms.

While it was partially what Epic was aiming at, the court did not grant them their other wants coercing Apple to open iPhone to third-party app stores.

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At the time, Epic stated that this was no victory for them and would go for an appeal.

In a letter addressed to Epic, Apple wrote, “will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court’s judgment becomes final and non-appealable.”

Meanwhile, Sweeney also said that if Epic gets its developer account back, it would reincorporate Fortnite, albeit only on Apple’s most popular products.

Lawyer Mark Perry, representing Apple said they will not immediately reinstate the developer account due to Epic’s “duplicitous conduct”.

Sweeney had ended up paying Apple $6million for bypassing its in-app purchase fees. Apple had then said they would reinstate Fortnite if Epic followed the same App Store rules as other developers.

“Apple lied,” Sweeney said Wednesday. “Apple spent a year telling the world, the court, and the press they’d ‘welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else.’ Epic agreed, and now Apple has reneged in another abuse of its monopoly power over a billion users.”

The News Talkie Bureau

Source: 

Indianexpress